Njeri wa Muigai wa Njoroge, the wife of celebrated Kikuyu musician Muigai wa Njoroge, is in deep grief following the sudden death of Harriet Wangari, a young woman who had become like a daughter to her family.
Njeri broke the heartbreaking news on Facebook on November 7, sharing that Harriet had passed away just five days after falling ill. The speed of her death left the family completely blindsided.
How did Njeri mourn Harriet?
The two women first crossed paths on February, 29, 2024. At the time, Harriet was an orphan raising four children on her own while living with paralysis caused by complications during the birth of her fourth child in 2021.
After Njeri shared Harriet’s story on her YouTube channel, her fans rallied together and raised KSh 2 million, which funded the surgery Harriet desperately needed.
What started as an act of goodwill quickly became something much deeper. Even after the cameras stopped rolling and the posts slowed down, the friendship between the two women only grew stronger.
Harriet became woven into the fabric of Njeri’s family life. Njeri’s children referred to her as their big sister, while Njeri’s relatives took to calling her “Njeri’s daughter.”
“Since then Harriet and her kids became part of my family. Our bond grew stronger and we became even more closer even if I stopped posting her,” Njeri wrote in her post.
The grief in Njeri’s words was raw and unfiltered. She had held onto faith that Harriet would eventually walk again, making the loss feel all the more cruel.
In her post, she questioned God and admitted she did not even know how to process what had happened, let alone how to explain it to Harriet’s four young children.
“She left us yesterday, just 5 days of being unwell and she is gone. God, why my Harriet? I had soo much faith that she will walk again.. what do I tell her kids?” Njeri wrote.
She ended her tribute with a phrase in Kikuyu which loosely translates to a cry of pain over her beloved girl, capturing the depth of a loss that goes far beyond a social media connection.
